For the last year I've had on and off throat/ear aches. I've always been prone to sicknesses, but this has been ridiculous. There was a stretch of time from Feb 23 til about mid April where I was constantly sick. I had an ear infection for a small period of time...but otherwise no one knew what was causing my sore throats. About 4 days ago i noticed my throat starting to hurt adn the next day I woke up from the worst pain i could imagine and was crying for a very long time. My throat was like swollen and sore and i couldn't talk or swallow well. I went to the doc and for the 3rd time this year they told me that strep came back negative and they sent me home. They did give me a 'script for ibprofen [800 mg] and that's helped. but i don't know what else to do. i'm supposed to see a specialist but now my mom's telling me that if this pain isn't real then i should tell her now. [it is...but she doesn't believe me]
what could cause this recurring pain and is there anything I can do about it before I spend a lot of money to see a specialist??

I have the same thing you have man. In fact, its occuring right now for me. It usually subsides in 2 weeks max, but will come back every 3-4 months. Anyway, how do you think you got it? I have pan-sinusitis so it is difficult to breathe through my nose, but its not so bad that I cant sleep at night and I still do breathe through at least one nostril.

The odd thing is that when I breathe through my nose, i feel like the air coming in goes right through and into the back of my throat. So think about air intake from your mouth and the feeling of your throat getting dry - well, thats whats happening to me just through my nose! Apparently, if your nose doesnty filter the air correctly (or the cilia dont work right) it will cause bacteria and viruses to travel and get lodged in the throat - could this be what you have?

As for meds: I was prescribed Motrin 600mg (i noticed you got 800). The way I normally take care of the pain in the throat is by drinking hot salt water - yes, I drink it because gargling cant get far enough down in the throat, take tylenol extra strength (i switch between that and the motrin every 4-6hours), and im usually prescribed something called Z-Pack which is an antibiotic. Im currently taking Amoxicillin now since I havent seen the doc ( and its the only thing in the house left over from my siblings colds that will be effective against respiratory infections).

Do you notice than sleep is a pain? When you wake up, does your throat hurt even more?